Tuesday, May 12, 2015

James Connolly Commemoration: Government being dishonest on economic choices

The life and
death of James Connolly is a story of heroism in the struggle against injustice
and inequality.

Connolly was
born in 1868 into a poor family in an Irish ghetto in Edinburgh.

He was a
self-educated man whose contribution to Ireland and to Irish labour is
unequalled.

Connolly first
came to Ireland as a member of the British Army. Aged 14, he forged documents
to enlist to escape poverty and was posted to Cork, Dublin and later the
Curragh in Kildare.

Here in Dublin Connolly met Lillie Reynolds and they married in 1890.

First and
foremost Connolly was a workers' leader. In 1911 he was appointed Belfast
organiser of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union.

He organised the workers of Belfast, and especially the linen slaves - those
thousands of young women who worked in hellish conditions in the Mills which
were the backbone of Belfast’s economy.

In the years
before the 1916 Rising, Connolly was central to a wave of strikes across
Ireland designed to improve working conditions and wages.

The Great Lockout of 1913, here in the city of Dublin, is still recalled as one
of the greatest battles between Labour and workers anywhere.

This was an
epic struggle in which the Dublin bosses and owner of the Irish Independent
newspaper, William Martin Murphy, set out to crush the workers and their
organisations.

Eventually the
Dublin workers were starved back to work. But Connolly remained defiant and
continued to organise and mobilize.

Out of the Lockout emerged the Irish Citizen Army. Its task was to defend
workers against the brutal attacks of police and hired thugs of the employers.

Connolly saw the Citizen Army not only as a defence force, but as a
revolutionary army, dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism and imperialism.

When Connolly
entered into an alliance with the IRB to participate in the 1916 Easter Rising,
during the 1916 Rising he was the Commandant General of the Dublin Division of
the Army of the Irish Republic – and the man whom Pearse described as ‘the
guiding brain of our resistance’.

Connolly died
fighting to establish a republic on this island in which the people were
sovereign and citizens would be ensured their fundamental rights.

He was one of
signatories of the 1916 Proclamation which guarantees religious and civil
liberty, equal rights and equal opportunities to all its citizens.

It contains a commitment to cherish all the children of the nation equally.
Sadly, real equality does not exist in this society.

Partition created two conservative states, administered by two elites who
entrenched their own power and privilege to the detriment of ordinary citizens.

While the North became a one-party Orange State, the South has been run since
Partition by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, often with the support of the Labour
Party.

The result has been the perpetuation of inequality and conservatism and the
continued division of Ireland.

Following the calamity of the economic crash under the last Fianna Fáil-led
Government, a Fine Gael/Labour coalition assumed office with a huge mandate for
political change.

But as citizens have learned to their cost, nothing has changed.

According to
the most recent CSO figures the top 10% own over half of the wealth while the
poorest 20% own more than they own.

According to
the ESRI, only the top 40% of households actually benefited from the last
Budget with the greatest benefits going to the top 10%.

Fine Gael and Labour’s four Budgets have been the most unfair and unequal since
the economic crash.

There has been
a huge growth in social inequality.

A third of our
children now live in consistent poverty.

Over 1,000
children are homeless in this city.

Low and middle-income earners have been severely penalised by Fine Gael and
Labour.

The abolition of the PRSI ceiling, increase in VAT, the introduction of a Family
Home Tax and Water Charge have significantly increased the tax bill of ordinary
workers.

The abject failure to do anything practical to alleviate the plight of those in
mortgage distress or those struggling with spiralling rents has further
increased financial pressure on ordinary families.

These are the
same damaging policies agreed by Fianna Fáil with the Troika in 2010 and
implemented by Fine Gael and Labour since 2011.

These policies have already led to massive emigration and an increase in
low-paid and insecure jobs.

They have accelerated the crises in our health, education and community
services.

But there is a better, fairer way.

Sinn Féin
advocates a reform of the tax system to ease the burden on low and
middle-income earners while also increasing revenue to invest in a fair and
just recovery.

In Government Sinn Féin would do this by:

● Abolishing the Property Tax and Water Charges;

● Reforming the USC to ease the burden on lower earners;

● Ensuring high-earners pay their fair share of income tax;

● Increasing employer’s PRSI to address the deficit in the Social Insurance
Fund;

● Introducing a wealth tax to generate funds for investment in job creation.

Sinn Féin passionately believes that the economy must serve society, not the
other way around. We would introduce measures to support and promote small and
medium enterprises.

We believe that citizens are entitled to secure jobs with decent pay and
conditions, adequate housing and quality public services.

Fine Gael and Labour are perpetuating a lie that it is possible to reduce the
overall tax take while increasing investment in frontline services.

This approach
means that high-earners will be the winners while those on low and middle
incomes and citizens most dependent on public services will lose out yet again.

Sinn Féin’s economic alternative offers a route to a fair recovery. Our
politics are about empowering citizens on the basis of equality.

Fianna Fáil,
Fine Gael and the Labour Party seek to limit the possibilities of political
engagement.

Unlike
Connolly, they have no over-arching vision of a better society which politics
and democracy can bring about.

It was James
Connolly who coined the phrase ‘We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland.’

Such clear
sighted comment has no place in today’s Labour leadership.

They
capitulated to the elites of the EU, to the Troika, to the bankers and the
golden circles and forced working people to bear the burden for this
indulgence.

It is
appropriate on Connolly's anniversary that we welcome the 'Policy Principles
for a Progressive Irish Government' published on May Day by the unions
affiliated to the Right to Water Campaign.

These Principles are very much in line with the rights advocated by Sinn Féin
for many years.

We welcome this initiative and look forward to engaging in the debate in the
weeks ahead.

But debate is
not enough. We need to see tangible progress to make change happen.

Citizens
desperately need, for the first time ever in this State, a Government that is
not led by Fine Gael nor by Fianna Fáil.

More than that, they need a progressive Government that will pursue real and
viable alternative policies based on equality not austerity, rights not
privilege and that will govern in the interests of the people and not the
elites.

We need to show that those policies are workable and can yield actual results
that will make a difference in the lives of people.

Like Connolly,
we need to be both practical and visionary.

James Connolly declared that ‘the cause of labour is the cause of Ireland and
the cause of Ireland is the cause of labour’.

For Connolly, socialism and national self-determination were two sides of the
same coin.

In the recent Westminster elections Sinn Féin was confronted by a reactionary
alliance of Tories, unionists and the Orange Order determined to halt political
and social progress.

The newly re-elected Tory Government in London is wedded to austerity and this
presents severe challenges for society and citizens in the North.

These include the threat of more destructive cuts to the North's budget and to
the social welfare system as well as a referendum that could remove the North
from the EU with obvious negative effects for all the people of this island.

It is now clearer than ever that austerity is the price of the Union.

Sinn Féin's immediate focus is to work with others to confront these
challenges.

We are seeking to develop an All-Ireland alternative to the reactionary
politics that has long dominated both states.

Austerity must be actively opposed no matter if it's from a Tory Government in
London or a Fine Gael/Labour Party government in Dublin.

The Marriage Equality referendum on 22nd May is another opportunity to advance
the cause of equality in Ireland.

Sinn Féin has been running a strong, positive campaign for a 'Yes' vote.

Every vote will count. So, I would also appeal again for everyone to join the
campaign for a Yes Vote.

Kathleen
Funchion, a young mother and trade unionist, is also contesting the
Carlow/Kilkenny by-election under Sinn Féin's banner of equality, social
justice and Irish unity.

Kathleen is in the by-election to win and such a result would be a huge boost
for the cause of a fair recovery.

Sinn Féin is seeking to build an unstoppable momentum for positive political
change across this island.

I am mindful also that today, the anniversary of Connolly’s execution, is also
the anniversary of the death on hunger strike of Francis Hughes in the H Blocks
of Long Kesh in 1981.

Those of us who
were privileged to know Francie or who campaigned during that awful summer on
behalf of the H Block prisoners and the Armagh women are very mindful of their
sacrifices.

We are also
mindful that Francie, like James Connolly was about the future.

So my friends
let us continue to work to build a better future based on fairness, equality
and peoples’ rights.